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The Schism of the Faith
The Schism of the Faith is an ongoing theological schism within The Faith of the Seven and the Kingdoms of Westeros, dividing the realm into various feuding religious factions, the three being The Dominionists, The Divisionists and The Unionists. The Theology Breaks Thousands of years ago, the Father plucked seven stars from the sky and placed them on the brow of Hugo of the Hill, first King of the Andals. In time, the Andals would leave their home in northwest Essos and sail west across the Narrow Sea. They would make landfall first in what would become the Vale of Arryn. Their migratory invasion sparked a series of wars with the native First Men, who were unable to stand against these invaders. The Andals brought with them knowledge of iron and steel, new methods of war, and the Faith. With the exception of the Iron Islands and the North, all of Westeros would bow before the Andals and their new gods. The old gods were gradually driven out, the trees sacred to them burned, and the Andals set about ordering their new world. And for thousands of years, though the influence of the Faith ebbed and flowed, it remained a single institution. And then that changed. Some time after Aegon Targaryen retreated from Westeros in disgrace, new ideas began to take shape within the Faith. Some of these ideas originated within the Faith Militant, others within the wandering septons, and still others within the cloistered halls of the holy convents. These ideas began as a theological diversion: were the Seven one or were they seven? Orthodoxy held that they were Seven-Who-Are-One. Seven faces, seven aspects, for a single god. But others argued that these gods acted independently upon the world, that they were seven faces for seven different gods. And as the High Septon was traditionally regarded as the avatar of the Seven-Who-Are-One, those who argued that the Seven-Who-Are-Seven was the core truth of the Faith also came to realize that they would be obliged to find seven Avatars, one for each god, to stand in contrast to the High Septon. While these thoughts began to crystallize, the great keeps of Westeros became home to a different ideology: that kings were responsible for not just the secular wellbeing of their people, but their spiritual wellbeing as well. Septons began to think that maybe, just maybe, the likes of Lannister and Durrandon were endowed with spiritual authority just as the High Septon were. After all, if they were not, wouldn’t the Father have judged them and cast them down for their pride? Prior to 285 A.A., these differences of Faith were theological. But when the Ironborn landed west of Oldtown and began to reave the Reach countryside, the High Septon, in a moment of weakness, chose to flee the city. All those who had cast their doubts upon the legitimacy of the office of the High Septon now felt vindicated. And when the previous High Septon had gone missing a new one had been elevated to replace him, this new High Septon having long since established himself as a hardliner and utterly inflexible in his ideology, the cracks that had appeared prior to the arrival of the Ironborn now spread. When the Ironborn returned during the War of the Trident, this time capturing Oldtown and driving the Faith from the city entirely, the disarray and confusion caused by the relocation of the High Septon and the Most Devout to the Eyrie proved to be too much stress on a fractured, battered system. The cracks that had formed served as fault lines and the Faith faced the one threat it had never seen before: schism. Orthodoxy - The Unionists When the High Septon fled Oldtown in 290 A.A., harried by Ironborn reavers, he made for the Eyrie. The Warrior’s Sons held to the orthodox Faith and went with him. The Most Devout were divided, with certain septons and septas embracing different heresies, but the majority went with their High Septon. These spiritual leaders found refuge in the Vale of Arryn, which abhorred the heresies that had spread across Westeros. The Vale would become the rallying point for those who held to the orthodox Faith, styled by some as the “Unionists.” Those Northern Houses that followed the “new gods” would shun the heresies of the southerners. The Dusklands and the High Kingdom of the Torrentine would keep the orthodox Faith as well. The Trident, while not as unified in its willingness to follow the High Septon as her eastern and southeastern neighbors, would lean towards the orthodox Faith as well. The Divisionist Faith The flight of the High Septon and Most Devout left the Reach in religious turmoil. Septons and septas had fled in advance of the news of the Ironborn advance, abandoning the flocks they were supposed to tend with no regard for how they might suffer without the guiding hands of their religious leaders. And so it was that these smallfolk, and the Poor Fellows with them, turned to whoever would offer them the prospect of salvation. Septon Kennet and Septa Cassana, two long-standing members of the Most Devout, broke with their High Septon and began to preach that the seven gods were exactly that: seven gods. Meeting with widespread success in their work, they then began to search for the worldly High Incarnates of their seven gods. Seven of these High Incarnates, hailing from an eclectic mix of backgrounds, were found and call the Starry Sept of Oldtown home. These High Incarnates have found the most success on the banks of the Mander and in distant Sunspear. The Dominionist Faith Whereas the Unionists and Divisionists are preoccupied with byzantine theological debates, the Dominionists view the world with a great deal more practicality: the Seven-Who-Are-One are one, as the name suggests, and debating the merits of that is a waste of time. Where the Dominionists differ with the orthodox Faith, however, is in the secular manifestation of the Seven. The Dominionists argue that a king derives his right to rule from the Seven who, in so granting their boon, empower said king to act in matters both secular and spiritual. The Timeline of Schism 291 A.A. - The Fall of the Starry Sept Fifty years ago, spurred on by thoughts of plunder, King Harwyn Drumm landed on the Shield Islands. After years of conflict, King Harwyn was slain and the Ironborn thrown back into the sea. Six years ago, spurred on by King Cotter Goodbrother’s great plan to reave up and down the western coast of Westeros, House Drumm again struck at the Reach, this time turning their might on the coastal holdings of Balladon and Blackcrown. They would come within sight of the walls of Oldtown, but Houses Hightower and Florent would throw them back into the sea. But this year the Reachmen would not be so lucky. House Drumm struck for a third time. Lord Qorwyn Drumm fell upon the city in the darkness. The handful of ships defending the Whispering Sound were bordered in silence, their defenders caught unawares and massacred. The city lay open to them. Ironborn longships roved up and down the canals, slaughtering and looting along the way. Oldtown, the most ancient and glorious city of Westeros, had fallen. The High Septon looked down upon the smoldering ruins of the Seven Shrines and knew the city was lost. He ordered the Faith Militant to hold the line while the smallfolk and the clergy could escape. The Warrior’s Sons drew up in lines of burnished steel on the steps of the Starry Sept, shield and sword at the ready. The Poor Fellows drew up alongside them, carrying whatever weapons they were able to find,scrounge, beg, or loot from the fallen. And there they waited for the coming storm. The High Septon, proudly proclaiming that he would let no man face a task he himself would not dare, took up his warhammer and went to fight. To the great shame of the Faith, the Poor Fellows broke and ran in the face of these horrors climbing up the canal walls and spilling down the streets, weapons and clothing red with the blood of their victims. When the Knight-Captain of the Warrior’s Sons saw this, he knew the day was lost and so ordered two score of his knights to drag the High Septon out of the city, over his protests if necessary. The remaining five score knights fought and died on the steps of the Starry Sept, their life’s blood buying the High Septon the chance to flee. Other septons would not prove so lucky. More than one, too stubborn to flee, would find himself drowned in the harbor by Drumm reavers. The surviving Warrior’s Sons took their High Septon through secret tunnels to the Rose Road, where they mounted steeds collected there for that purpose and rode hard through the night. But upon arriving at Highgarden, the High Septon and his retinue were greeted with news that Septon Kennet, one of the Most Devout, had declared a man to be the Avatar of the Warrior. He had been greeted with cheers from the Poor Fellows and scorn from the local Warrior’s Sons. Rather than risk a clash with these heretics, the High Septon decided to continue on. He took the Highgarden chapter of the Warrior’s Sons with him and rode hard for the Eyrie. � 292 A.A. - A Spiritual Divide The High Septon arrived in the Eyrie in the first moon. On the long ride from Highgarden, he had lost yet more of the Most Devout. Septon Archibald, ever the High Septon’s chief detractor amongst the Most Devout, had abandoned all pretense of even-handedness, announced that he was going to serve the true Avatar of the Faith, Tyran Lannister, and headed off to the Rock. He would be greeted there with news of Tyran’s death and Tyrion’s ascent.Septa Genna turned back near Bitterbridge, having at last decided to cast her lot in with Septon Kennet. By the time the party reached the Stormwoods, Septas Aelinor and Lollys would similarly break ranks. Both clung to the Dominionist teachings, as Septon Archibald did, but they placed their faith in different men: Septa Lollys backed Durran Durrandon, Septa Aelinor backed Yoren Yronwood. The rest would remain loyal to their High Septon. As the remainder rode north, they gradually accumulated more of the Warrior’s Sons, loyalists answering the call of their High Septon and Knight-Captains. But all attempts to galvanize the Poor Fellows, to bring them back into the fold of the Faith Militant, had failed. They stayed along the Mander, answering to Septon Kennet and Septa Genna and their newly-discovered High Incarnates. The Warrior’s Sons welcomed this, spurning the so-called Avatar of the Warrior and the Poor Fellows that had run and left their brothers to die on the steps of the Starry Sept. The High Septon, however, did not suffer this divide lightly. He called upon the errant Most Devout to assemble at Gulltown, there to discuss the future of the Faith. When Septon Archibald wrote back, replying that he feared for his safety, the High Septon was aghast. Even those septons that had openly preached heresy had merely been cast out, for that which was dead could not repent. Did these heretics think so slowly of the High Septon? Heart heavy with these thoughts, he consulted with King Andar Arryn, who agreed to guarantee the safety of the errant Most Devout and their personal retainers. Word was sent to the recalcitrant among the Most Devout. The Council of Gulltown began in the eleventh moon of 292 A.A. The High Septon spoke at great length on the threats posed by these heresies, not simply to matters of the Faith or his own office, but also to the Realm. He spoke of the dangers posed by the Divisionist doctrine, which he regarded as a canister of wildfire merely awaiting the opportunity to ignite, and of Dominionist doctrine with their Septon-Kings. For two months the High Septon and the Most Devout argued – and for two months no one yielded a single foot of ground. At the end of the twelfth month, the High Septon declared the errant septons and septas of the Most Devout to be heretics and announced that they were expelled from the Faith until such time as they repented. King Andar’s forces escorted them to the borders of the Vale or to their ships. 293 A.A. - The Common Man’s Schism The New Year came with a grim realization: the Faith was splintered. The Council of Gulltown, the last great hope to end this whole affair without violence or bloodshed, had failed. And as word circulated across Westeros, swords were drawn. It was market day at Stoney Sept. The monks gathered their produce and headed to one of the outlying villages, there to sell their surplus produce and perhaps purchase some other goods they could not make themselves. But a Dominionist septon had arrived the week prior and began agitating against the Unionist brothers. The brothers were driven from town under a hail of stones. None died, but the monks were badly bruised. In Oldtown, Septon Jasper delivered a Divisionist sermon at the Sailor’s Sept. The sailors in attendance on that day were from Pentos, half a world away. They met the septon’s teachings first with confusion, then with jeers and accusations of heresy. The septon, stunned, fled. The Unionist Pentoshi defaced the whitewashed walls of the sept, announcing to all that the septon had fallen to heresy, before being dispersed by the Watch’s truncheons. Septon Archibald, on his way back to Casterly Rock, stopped in a small village named Oxcross just outside of the Golden Tooth. He delivered his sermon to a crowd of smallfolk, who evidently had not heard that they ought to place their faith in King Tyrion instead of the High Septon. He was pelted with vegetables for his trouble. Two hedge knights met at an inn in Duskendale. They shared tales of their travels, of their recent work, and bought one another rounds. When the matter of the schism arose, the Reachman told the Stormlander that the Divisionist cause was a “load of tripe.” By the end of the night, the Reachman had a broken jaw and the Stormlander had a broken arm. A ship arrived in Gulltown, hailing from distant Lannisport. The harbormaster, a particularly zealous man, demanded to know if the captain of the *Gilded Fo’c’sle* “held true to the High Septon.” The ship’s captain declined to comment, for he judged the matters of the Faith above his station. The harbormaster then barred him from entry. Irate, the captain left, then returned twelve hours later when a different harbormaster was on duty. The second harbormaster did not share his colleague’s zeal. A wandering septon was invited to speak at a small tourney held outside Acorn Hall. A half dozen noble Houses were in attendance. The septon delivered a thunderous sermon, castigating the Dominionists. Whether spurred on by the Dominionist banners flapping in the wind or indifferent to them, the end result was the same: he was met with jeers and chased from the tourney grounds by hounds. 294 A.A. - The First Martyr As more and more reports of petty violence upon the clergy filtered into the Eyrie, the High Septon grew angry. These men were heretics, yes, but they still clergy. And so the High Septon selected a man to bear his message to the Divisionists in Oldtown: Septon Zachary, who had, until the schism, been Septon of Old Oak. Septon Zachary chartered a ship from Gulltown and made for Oldtown. Once there, he entered the Starry Sept, which still bore the scars of Drumm’s violence. Septon Zachary appealed to the septons and High Incarnates present, all but begging them to return to the fold, to settle their differences of faith with academic arguments rather than schism. His pleas fell on deaf ears. Septon Zachary returned to the Starry Sept every day for the next six days. His pleas began by discussing the stability of the Faith and the Realm, and how he felt the two things were inextricably linked. By the seventh day, his pleas were emotional: he read out a litany of incidents, detailing how scores of men and women were harmed by this schism. He put a human face on the suffering. And he began to gain ground. Septa Genna of the Most Devout, who had arrived on the third day after news reached her in Highgarden, thanked him for coming so far to speak so eloquently in defense of the Faith. On the fifth day, Septon Jasper, the very same whose words had sparked a small riot in the Sailor’s Sept, confided in Septon Zachary that he believed his mission had merit, that his arguments were guided by the Crone, and that the path outlined by Septon Zachary merited further consideration. But as he gained allies, he also gained enemies. And on the seventh day, some of the Warrior’s Poor Fellows reached a conclusion: Septon Zachary is unwelcome and his words are heresy, but the High Incarnates cannot be seen to muddy their hands in matters such as these. And so a dozen of the most radical among them sneak into the inn where Septon Zachary is staying, bribe the innkeeper, and drag the septon, bound and gagged, to the Seven Shrines. There, under the watchful eyes of the Father, the Mother, the Crone, the Warrior, the Smith, the Maiden, and the Stranger, they stoned him to death. The High Incarnates act quickly. The culprits boasted about their actions and were promptly arrested. The Avatar of the Father declared the men murderers, guilty of spilling sanctified blood and damned to the Seven Hells, and the Warrior decapitated each man in turn. But it proved to be too little, too late. What had begun as a theological dispute, even if fraught with risk, had now escalated to violence. And there was no way to unspill Septon Zachary’s blood. 295 A.A. - The Bloody Year The death of Septon Zachary reverberated throughout Westeros. Those who dedicated their lives to the service of the gods were to be revered and held apart, not murdered in the night. All at once, the social order that had held religious violence at arm’s reach fell apart. When word reached the Warrior’s Sons chapter in Lannisport, two score took up arms and left the city. They fell upon a group of Poor Fellows that were heading south on the Ocean Road, slaughtering them when they made camp. The Lords of the West, alarmed, mustered levies to apprehend these men. Crakehall men pursued the Warrior’s Sons east. Horsemen from Cornfield and Payne Hall rode down the murderers on the rolling fields of Swyft’s land. The Knight-Captain of the Lannisport Chapter, perhaps seeing which way the winds were blowing, took the Gold Road east along with the rest of his chapter. Septon Lothar of Lemonwood delivered a fiery sermon, lambasting the Divisionists for allowing their own to murder a septon. He was found lying face down in a ditch three days later. The Misty Sept, located deep in the forests pledged to House Mertyns of the Stormlands, sent a petition to King Durran Durrandon, pleading with him to denounce the men who murdered Septon Zachary and Septon Lothar. Two days after their letter arrived, a new letter arrived from Hosue Mertyns: men had stolen into the sept at night and burned it down. The survivors were being sent to Storm’s End by ship and Lord Mertyns was actively hunting down the handful of men that had escaped him so far. He would capture and execute each of the twenty seven men responsible. Two Silent Sisters made to take the body of an elderly man from his home in Highgarden. His sons claimed he was a Divisionist and would not suffer a Unionist to touch him. The Silent Sisters had thus far chosen to not pick a side in the matter. When they declined to leave, the sons assaulted them. Battered, the Silent Sisters retreated. Once King Gardener heard what happened, he sent his men to drag the boys from their home and hang them. Every Westerosi land that kept to the Faith felt this schism. A thousand incidents, great and small, plagued Westeros in 295. Some of these incidents were motivated by religious differences. Many of them were not. Petty feuds erupted again with fresh bloodshed and the schism was invoked to provide a paper-thin veneer of legitimacy to these ancient disputes. Farmers fought one another in markets, petty nobles demanded their honor be satisfied in duels, and more than one ship vanished with all hands under questionable circumstances. The violence was at its worst in the Reach, where the various followers of different High Incarnates clashed over petty disagreements. A fire in Rosby killed sixty Divisionists in their improvised sept. Word came down of a rebellion brewing amongst the Vale mountain clans. Only Pentos, across the Narrow Sea, was exempt. The Pentoshi looked on in mute horror, hoping against hope that this violence in a foreign land would not spill over onto their shores. 296 A.A. - The War of the Dominionist Kings King Durran, buoyed by the victories his armies had achieved in the War of the Trident, set his sights on the last of his weak neighbors: the Yronwood Kingdom of the Greenbelt. When word began to circulate amongst his closest advisors that war was looming, Septa Lollys of the Most Devout appealed to her king to hold fast. House Yronwood was spiritual kin, she argued, and some common ground had finally been found between the two Houses thanks to their Dominionist ideals. But her appeals did not carry the day. Not only would King Durran not be swayed by mentioning Yronwood’s Dominionist leanings, his actions would ultimately force the Yronwoods to beg for aid from whomever might offer it – even, as it turns out, if that meant aid came in the form of the Crown Prince of the Torrentine, a steadfast Unionist. What would become known as the Storm War would ultimately pose an interesting theological dilemma. The Faith had never been very good at preventing wars between the eternally feuding kings, always smarting over one slight or another, but some had been fooled into expecting something better, something higher-minded from the splinter sects of the Faith. They were wrong to do so. Just as, inevitably, proponents of Divisionist or Unionist Faith would no doubt be equally wrong in the future when their own sects came to blows. While monks and nobles debated the finer points of the implications of the intra-Dominionist War, the violence that flooded the countryside after Septon Zachary’s death continued. A convent in Red Lake was robbed; the culprits were never captured. The septon of Greyshield, a Divisionist from the mainland, was drowned and Ironborn reavers blamed – not that it escaped anyone’s notice that the High Septon was from Greyshield or that the Ironborn hadn’t been seen near the Shield Islands in quite some time. A septa in Duskendale was found strangled in her quarters and a letter left in her copy of the Seven-Pointed Star, proudly proclaiming “THERE ARE SEVEN GODS.” The murderer was captured trying to flee the city and hanged. A nobleman of House Manderly was visiting Lannisport where a disagreement with a drunken hedge knight earned him a broken nose and the hedge knight a stint in the Lord of Lannisport’s dungeon. Four men were arrested attempting to start a fire in Old Oaks; when interrogated, they revealed they were from Lord Crakehall’s lands and that they wanted to “burn the heretics.” Needless to say, neither Lord Crakehall nor Lord Oakheart were particularly pleased with this sort of behavior; Oakheart took compensation and Crakehall took the severed heads to mount on his wall. But the violence, while ongoing, was beginning to slow. Wholesale massacres were growing less and less common. The Lords of Westeros had called some of their banners, pressing some men into military service and using them to hunt down the troublemakers. In the ninth moon alone, would-be murderers were foiled in Lannisport, Cornfield, Red Lake, Bitterbridge, Oldtown, Blackcrown, Honeyholt, Appleton, Greenshield, Cider Hall, Brightwater Keep, Tumbleton, Parchments, and Darry. 297 A.A. - Greenfist and the Divisionists As the new year dawned, two thousand Knights of the Vale and several hundred of the Warrior’s Sons returned from the hills south of Redfort, having smashed the uprising before it could begin gaining momentum. House Redfort pursued the routed clansmen into the hills, killing all that found themselves within reach of their swords, before letting a few dozen of them flee with word of their catastrophic defeat. The Redsmith tribe had been broken before others could join them and a widespread crisis averted. As House Redfort combed through the ruins of the Redsmith camp, they found a dead septon, a chest of Reach silver, and his copy of the Seven-Pointed Star filled with edits. Every instance of “Seven-Who-Are-One” had a line through it and a correction scribbled in the margin, the septon’s brutish handwriting concealing the magnificent illuminations of his copy of the work. The book was given to the Warrior’s Sons, who threw it in a bag and tied it to the saddlebags of the man last in the cavalcade, acting as though the heresies of the work might somehow infect those loyal to the Faith by simple proximity. The Redsmith rebellion notwithstanding, the violence that flooded the countryside after Septon Zachary’s continued to slow. Some of this was due to the direct action of local lords, who saw the widespread religious unrest as an immediate threat to the safety and stability of the subjects. But much of the success in these troubled days could be laid at the feet of King Gwayne XI Gardener. The Reach had been predisposed to this religious violence due to the abrupt change. The land had gone from the bastion of the High Septon to embracing heresy in a matter of moons, spurred on as it was by heretics amongst the Most Devout. And while theologians had given the sect the name “Divisionism,” for its steadfast belief that the Seven were seven separate gods, the term did not quite reflect the deep and fundamentally irreconcilable differences between those sects. Those who counted themselves on the side of the Father would only reluctantly consort with those who worshipped the Mother. And few indeed would suffer the Cult of the Stranger in their midst. And so King Gwayne did the only thing he could possibly have done: he set about bending the Divisionist leadership to his will. Some chafed under his yoke, and many grumbled about the influence of the secular in the spiritual, but it brought the Reach stability – for now. Even Gwayne, for all his deft maneuvering to set himself up as integral to the Divisionist power structure, could not safeguard against future incidents. Only time would tell if King Gwayne had successfully tamed the dragon that had been loosed upon Westeros with the Schism or if he had merely paid it off with enough food and coin to keep it slumbering peacefully along the Mander. 298 A.A. - The Year of the Second Council The violence of the past years grated on the High Septon. He paced the halls of the Eyrie, so far above the world, and mulled over how to proceed. The Vale was stable, but the Redsmith uprising was a problem. Was it motivated by the Reachman silver or the Reachman dogma? He did not know, nor did any of the loyal Most Devout. Equally problematic was the looming violence amongst the secular powers. The Trident was in a bad shape, thanks in no small part to the firestorm the Ironborn ignited or the Houses now competing for the crown. King Durran’s ambitious knew precious found boundaries and, with the petty kings of Blackwater Bay under his boot and a failed bid to secure the Greenbelt, it was only a matter of time until his gaze turned elsewhere. The Trident again, perhaps, or maybe even the upper reaches of the Mander. The Reach had stabilized under King Gwayne’s steel fist, but the religious divides of Westeros were the most prominent in the Reach by far and King Gwayne might seek to add to his power before those cracks turned to fractures. The West was primed to make a bid on the Trident, either for directly for King Tyrion himself or indirectly through Lord Tully. And so the High Septon saw a way to strike down two birds with a single stone: another Council, this time at Harrenhal instead of Gulltown. The kings of Westeros, great and petty, would want to be there and determine the fate of the Kingdom of the Trident. It would give him an opportunity to speak with each king separately – and an opportunity for each king to put forth their own claim on the Trident. They would come and he would have his moment. And so the decision was made and ravens sent winging to the kings of Westeros. The King of the Trident would be determined at Harrenhal. And, if the High Septon had his way, so would the fate of all the Faithful in Westeros. The Most Devout Septon Archibald, Dominionist (Lannister) Septon Cleos, Unionist Septon Dafyd, Unionist Septon Edmund, Unionist Septon Kennet, Divisionist (Reach) Septon Wallace, Unionist Septon Ygon, Unionist Septa Aelinor, Dominionist (Yronwood) Septa Cassana, Unionist Septa Genna, Divisionist (Reach) Septa Hostella, Unionist Septa Lollys, Dominionist (Durrandon) Septa Lysa, Unionist Septa Melara, Unionist Category:The Faith of the Seven Category:Westeros Category:Religion